4th Rotations: Shipwrecked Lessons

Ever have a week of lessons that seem to bomb? This was my week. The ship didn't always sink to the bottom of the ocean but it came close.

Kindergarten: I spent two hours pulling picture book titles that told a story and then had the kindergarteners act it out. They didn't really get it and didn't learn much so I dropped it. Developmentally it was not "just right." Oh well. Here's the video:

Grade 1: I read the book, Sometimes You Get What You Want by Meredith Gary, and had students use My Story app on the iPad. They were supposed to write something following the pattern but they just played with the app. There is learning in that but it wasn't the objective. Next time I will have them write down what they will use and I think it is better if done later in the year when grade 1 is better at writing.

Grade 2: We read new books. I got boxes of them and just read different ones.

Grade 3: The students used pic collage to find books and then I wanted them to write a reflection and post the pic collage on the school blog. The school blog was down so I created one on blogger but the students didn't really write good reflections. I sat in and watched a grade 3 teachers reflection and I liked how she had the kids turn and talk. I don't give them enough time to process. Plus, I'm hyper and that works against me.

Grade 4: I can't remember what I did with this grade. Oh yeah, one class made book trailers using iMovie. Only one group of 3 finished in 30 minutes. Afterwards I realized that the students should have written down their book trailer. Most didn't make sense. I did make them use picture books which helped simplify the project. Here's the only finished product on a Mo Willems book:

Grade 5: Finished the Overdrive eBook lesson by registering with Adobe and downloading a book. I made this photo with Pic Collage